120 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



and mother, a sister, dear children, and a country, which, after all, 

 has its attractions, called me home very strongly, I do not know 

 how I could have returned.' 



The preference here expressed by de Saussure for England as 

 a residence was shared by not a few of his countrymen. There 

 were many family and business connections between the two 

 Protestant States : to the serious side of the Genevese character 

 London perhaps proved more congenial than Paris ; the Genevese 

 patrician felt at home among the English aristocracy, while the 

 Genevese radical who had reasons for leaving his native city 

 found welcome and congenial employment in many quarters, and 

 might even, like Deluc, the climber of the Buet, aspire to become 

 ' Reader to a Queen,' or with d'lvernois, to gain the honour of 

 knighthood. 



Fran9ois Tronchin, writing from Paris to de Saussure just 

 before the latter left London, anticipated his friend's favourable 

 opinion of English hospitality : 



' The country in which you are is perhaps of all the countries 

 in the world the most attractive. You have not yet told me, but I 

 venture to guess your feeling about it. I should have had more doubts 

 as to Madame de Saussure's, if her letters did not altogether ease my 

 mind as to her life in England. The Paradise of women is not identical 

 with that of every man, and a country where men have the imperti- 

 nence not to be always at their feet cannot be that which they like 

 best. If you are really enthusiastic about the English we will talk 

 about them as much as you like. Otherwise I shall regret your not 

 having been granted by Heaven a soul of the English stamp and we 

 will avoid the subject.' 



Madame de Saussure has answered for us Fran9ois Tronchin's 

 question. The de Saussures liked England ' prodigiously.' 



